


The Mapmaker

by nanda (nandamai)



Category: Mad Max Series (Movies), Mad Max: Fury Road
Genre: F/M, Finger Painting, Fluff, Furiosa Likes to Watch, Happy Healthy Citadel Tag, Maps, Max Has a Srs Job, Scruffy Stinky Max
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-02
Updated: 2015-11-02
Packaged: 2018-04-29 14:32:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5131148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nandamai/pseuds/nanda
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The map covers two walls, now. There is no legend; it's all in his head, and in hers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Mapmaker

When Max returns it is always late in the day, and it always goes like this:

He leaves his car in the garage, leaves anything he's acquired to be dealt with the next day. Those who know him know better than to expect a greeting; they'll get a distracted nod at best. Those who don't know him might be insulted or angry, but there is usually someone around to explain.

He stops in the kitchen, grabs something quickly -- he prefers fruit if it's available, after days upon days of dried rations, but he'll take whatever is there. Everyone in the kitchen stays out of his way.

He climbs up to Furiosa's room while he eats, avoiding people as much as he can, ducking down side corridors if necessary. She always keeps a jug full of water, and he drinks it all down. He'll refill it later.

If she is out, somewhere in the Citadel, someone will send a pup to tell her he's returned, but she won't hurry back.

If she's in her room when he arrives, she just watches. It used to bother her, a bit, being ignored, but now she knows. She knows he'll be angry with himself if he forgets a detail. And she knows she likes to watch.

Max mixes the powdered clay and the oil they also always keep in the room, dips two fingers in to coat them, and begins.

*

The map started many days ago. After he came back the first time, Furiosa gave him a compass. He used cloth until Furiosa, thinking of infections, convinced him to stop pricking his skin for blood-ink. He tried pencil and paper, but that was wasteful, and the paper too fragile. He started drawing on a wall in the Council room, but that drew an audience, and they both agreed they might someday want this information to be less public. Not now, but someday. 

Furiosa's room it is, then. His map covers two walls, now. There is no legend; it's all in his head, and in hers.

The third wall contains a series of star maps Furiosa has kept for more than a thousand days. Like Max, she used to record the movements of the skies after every trip. They each have different names, different pictures, different stories for the stars, and they tell each other, laughing. Sometimes they make up their own stories as they lie in bed, competing to see who can bullshit the most. It always ends in a tie.

*

Today it's after dinner when he arrives, and Furiosa is reading a draft proposal for trade with a town to the west that Max found for them. He's been gone for 73 days. She sits with her back to the wall while she works, knowing she'll never finish. 

He's filthy, he's always filthy when he comes home, but she doesn't mind.

He went northwest. He has to reach over his head to paint little arrows, marking the extent of a mountain chain Furiosa has only seen from a distance. It's much longer than she thought. There's a small square with a dot inside to show that he saw light on one of the mountains, but didn't investigate. Then there are two small Vs, marking valleys; one of them bears his curly symbol for water and a question mark, meaning he thinks a river flows there sometimes. The other valley has a small aloe leaf. If there are desert plants, rain must fall occasionally. She thinks he will visit both again, to check.

Furiosa sets her papers aside, brings her knees up to her chest. Max goes quickly from one feature to another, sometimes scratching out an old mark with sand and replacing it with new information. As he moves, his smell hits the most primitive parts of her brain.

He marks two small settlements next, one level with his shoulders and one with his chest. The higher one has a D, for danger, and the lower has a smiling face and a number for the residents, 24. He'll return there again, and tell them about the Citadel if he thinks they are potential allies.

He stops to take off his jacket and push up his sleeves, getting paint on both. He'll regret that later, Furiosa thinks, smiling. For now, it gives her a better view of his arms. She can see the muscles in his back, too, as he reaches above his head; can see the muscles in his ass as he fairly dances on his toes, determined to record everything all at once.

She bites her lip, notices the seam in her pants, and pulls her knees closer.

It took her a while to understand why she finds mapmaking so damn sexy. It's just a fucking map. But it's the concentration, she decided: the concentration, and the lack of self-consciousness. He hardly seems to know where he is. The scruff and the stink help, too, though she wouldn't want to live with that for more than a few hours; and, of course, the fact that she hasn't seen him in 73 days. And then there's knowing what will happen when he finishes.

After the settlements, he went west and south. He found an abandoned mine they might want to check out -- she's happy he didn't explore it on his own; once he would have -- and the ruins of a city, which he marks with a D, plus an X in a large circle, for "stay away." The soil nearby is marked as toxic, and the people as sick. It's enough to make Furiosa worry, and determine to ask him about later, but not enough to make her interrupt. She knows he won't have gotten too close.

Beyond the city, though, once he turned east towards home, he found the half-buried remains of some road war, remains they might want to salvage. It says S? and D, but it might be worth the risk. This is another thing Furiosa will ask him to clarify.

There are three more settlements and another valley on the way to the Citadel, and a patch of salt; he marks no details on any of them. By that time, she guesses, he was eager to return. She's glad. She licks her lips and finds the seam in her crotch again.

Finally Max steps back, puts the paint bucket down on the desk. Furiosa lowers and crosses her legs, tapping her fingers on her thigh while she watches him double-check his work. He finds a mistake, sands it out, relocates it, a bit further east.

Again he sets down the bucket, this time stretching his shoulders, biceps, fingers, and finally, finally, he turns to her.

She's already wet.

"Hi," he says with half a smile.

"Hi." 

"Join me in the bath?"

She practically jumps to her feet. "Absolutely."

He meets her at the door and paints a stripe of white down her nose.

**Author's Note:**

> [Here I am on Tumblr and there's lots more Mad Max.](http://nandamai.tumblr.com)


End file.
